DIY Halloween Wood Blocks

Create some adorable DIY Halloween wood blocks with spooky character faces! This easy project adds fun Halloween vibes to your home decor and it’s perfect to make with kids.

Halloween has always been one of my favorite times to make crafts (besides Christmas, or course!). It’s like the perfect excuse to mix fun, spookiness, and creativity.

DIY Wood Blocks for Halloween

Every year, I find myself adding something new to my decorations, and this time, I couldn’t resist making these cute little DIY Halloween Wood Blocks. I upcycled some wood blocks and a board piece from an old project, gave them a spooky makeover, and now they’ve turned into Frankenstein, Dracula, a ghost, and a jack-o-lantern.

They’ve already made my entryway feel so festive, and I can’t wait to share how you can make your own!

What I love most about this project is how easy it is and that it’s all about having fun—no perfect lines or fancy tools needed. So, if you’re in the mood for a little Halloween crafting and want something that adds a personal touch to your décor, you’re in the right place.

How to make Halloween Wood Blocks

Supplies:

• 4 scrap wooden blocks – mine are upcycled from pallets, and they’re all different sizes—You can purchase some blocks if you don’t have scraps.
• 1 wood base slightly longer than all 4 wood blocks together – I used a leftover piece from another project.
• Acrylic paint: black, purple, orange, green, white – Craft paint will do too.
• Oil-based black and white markers.
• Craft sealer –optional, to protect your work
• Sandpaper –optional, for smoothing edges

Tools:

• Paintbrushes
• Pencil for sketching faces
• Surface protection

Instructions:

Step 1: Prep Your Wood Blocks

Gather all your wood pieces. I used pallet scraps, so mine are all a bit different in size. If yours are too rough, give them a quick sand to smooth out any sharp edges and remove splinters.

You’ll also need a wood base to display your blocks—I had one left over from another project, but any sturdy piece will work.

Step 2: Paint the Black Base Coat

To give our blocks that spooky, night-time vibe, I started by painting all the blocks with a solid coat of black acrylic craft paint. I also love that due to wood imperfections, the black will be visible which gives that extra spooky vibe.

Don’t forget to paint the flad wood base too—this will be the backdrop for your blocks when we’re done.

Let it all dry completely.

Step 3: Paint Your Characters

I went with four classic Halloween characters: a ghost, Frankenstein, Dracula, and a jack-o-lantern. You can totally switch it up with your favorite spooky characters!

I hand-drew them on a sheet of paper. As you can see, there’s no need for illustrator skills. Because these are monsters, imperfection is your best ally.

Ghost:

With a pencil, I hand draw the ghost’s face, giving it those classic, shocked eyes and mouth.

Then with a fine brush and white paint, I traced the eyes and mouth and then painted the whole block white as a second coat of paint.

Set it aside to dry.

Then I retouch the paint, lines, and shapes with the white and black paint and a fine brush.

Let it dry.

Jack-o-lantern:

I did the same as with the ghost, I drew on a triangle-eyed, jagged-toothed face.

Then with a fine brush, I traced the shapes with orange paint followed by painting the whole block with a second coat of orange paint.

Set it aside to dry.

Then I retouch the paint, lines, and shapes with orange and black paint and a fine brush.

Frankenstein:

I traced the shape of the hair at the top and a small part of the sides of the blocks.

Then I used green paint and covered the front side tracing and leaving the hair-like shape on the top.

Once dry, add details like scars, a stitched-up brow, sad eyes, and a sad mouth with creepy teeth coming out with your oil-based black and white markers or paint pens.

Dracula:

Just like like did with Frankenstein, I hand-drew the classic widow’s peak hair with a pencil and gave a little bit of face on the sides of the block.

Then, I painted with purple paint all the face area. Let it dry.

Once dry, I drew sharp fangs, and creepy eyes with my black and white oil base markers.

Feel free to get creative with the faces—you can make them as spooky or silly as you want!

Let them all dry well.

Step 4: Prepare the Wooden base

I hand-wrote “Trick or Treat!” on the front of the black base with my oil-based white marker. You can add any Halloween message you like. Have fun with it!

Once everything is dry, you can seal the blocks with a craft sealer to keep them looking fresh year after year.

Step 5: Assemble Your Blocks

Once all your characters are done and completely dry, it’s time to bring it all together.

I placed my four Halloween blocks on top of the black wood base, side by side, creating a fun little lineup of spooky monsters.

You can glue them down with a hot glue gun if you want them fixed in place, but I left mine loose so I can switch them around or even use them individually in different parts of the house.

And You’re Done!

Now you’ve got an adorable set of DIY Halloween Wood Blocks to dress up your entryway or mantel.

The best part is, that this project is so customizable—change up the characters, add different colors, or even make a few extra blocks to create a whole spooky village!

I hope this project inspires you to get crafty this Halloween. Let me know what spooky characters you come up with!

Alternatives and Substitutions

If you don’t feel like hand-draw, print out spooky character faces, cut them out, and decoupage them onto the blocks using Mod Podge. It’s a quick way to get detailed faces without needing to hand-paint anything.

If you don’t have wood or foam blocks, small cardboard boxes work just as well. You can paint or wrap them in colored paper before drawing or gluing on your Halloween characters.

Also, you could paint different characters on each side of the blocks! You could have four spooky characters on one side and switch it up with fun Halloween patterns (like bats, pumpkins, or spiderwebs) on the other.

You could make it even more fun by turning one block into a Halloween countdown by painting numbers or using chalkboard paint, so you can change the number of days left until Halloween.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Halloween Projects To Try

Like this DIY Halloween wood blocks tutorial? You might definitely love these other Halloween project ideas too:

You might also enjoy these cute Vintage Halloween Blocks made by Amy over at Mod Podge Rocks.

✂️ Tutorial

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